I’m not Nigel Farage’s greatest fan but then I am not his greatest critic either. He has more than once overstepped the mark when trying to put his point across, and if I had the time and inclination I might be able to say to what extent. But on the other hand, and at the risk of being defriended by a significant size cohort of “friends” who are anti Farage, I find he often speaks a lot of sense and has done more than most to free us from EU shackles.While I am no Nigel apologist, I do question whether racist accusations are valid.

One of my Facebook feeds earlier was from “HOPE not hate”, which read: “This morning, on LBC radio, former UKIP leader Nigel Farage launched an outrageous attack on us, on Brendan Cox, husband of murdered MP Jo Cox, and by association on everyone who believes in HOPE not hate. Our lawyer has just sent Farage a letter demanding he retracts and publicly apologises or we will begin legal proceedings against him” and this was backed by a number of outraged “friends”, who called him a **** etc.

I listened to the “attack” (see here) and also to the context of that attack, which was Nigel Farage’s reaction to yet another Islamist terror attack, in Germany (see here). While I found some of his words insensitive given what Brendan Cox has been through, I did not feel the same sense of outrage others felt, especially since Brendan Cox had earlier been attacking Nigel Farage. While I don’t know quite what his gripe is with HOPE not Hate, I can begin to imagine and I too have my own issues with that organization for reasons stated in earlier blogs, and as for the attacks being in part a result of Germany’s political leaders letting in the perpetrators of terrorist acts without prior vetting, he has a valid point.

As for HOPE not hate taking Nigel Farage to court, they are in my view barking up the wrong tree and getting sidetracked. I concur there are many issues they can attend to and that’s what they should do. I can happily add to their list. I am, as they say, “just saying”!